Accomplished, controversial coach: A timeline of John Geddert's career in gymnastics

Former USA Gymnastics coach is known as one of the most successful in the sport. But he's also one of the most controversial. Geddert founded the Twistars gymnastics club with his wife in Michigan in 1996.
Eric Lacy / Lansing State Journal

John Geddert, 60, of Grand Ledge, is a one-time U.S. Olympic women's gymnastics coach. He was suspended by USA Gymnastics Jan. 22.(Photo: LSJ file photo)

Below is a timeline of former USA Gymnastics coach John Geddert's career highs and lows.

Geddert, 60, of Grand Ledge, coached the gold medal winning 2012 U.S. Olympic women's gymnastics team in the London games.

He founded the Twistars gymnastics club in the Lansing area in 1996 and worked for at least 20 years with Larry Nassar, the disgraced former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor currently serving lengthy prison sentences for sex assault and child pornography.

More than 260 women and girls have made sexual assault claims against Nassar.

Some of Nassar's victims have alleged Geddert was physically abusive. Others said he enabled Nassar's sexual assault. Geddert has denied the allegations and said last month that he's retired from coaching and management of the club.

1980

Geddert finishes a four-year collegiate career as a gymnast at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant. He majored in health and physical education/fitness, according to his LinkedIn profile page. A three-time letter winner, Geddert specialized in the horizontal bar, according to a CMU athletics spokesperson.

1984

John Geddert is one of the most accomplished gymnastics coaches in the country. His blunt, aggressive style with female gymnasts has plenty of supporters, but also critics.(Photo: Chris Holmes, Copyright 1996 The Lansing State Journal;Yes)

1990

George Szypula, Michigan State University's former gymnastics coach, tells the State Journal Geddert is like Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes.

"It's win, win, win," Szypula said of Geddert. "When you have someone like that, you have people who really like you and are dedicated. And there are others who are disenchanted with you."

Hayes was Ohio State University's football coach for 28 seasons. Despite five national titles, he was fired punching an opposing player during a game.

1996

After 12 years at Great Lakes Gymnastics, Geddert is fired by the club's co-owners.

Under Geddert's watch, the club's gymnasts won more than 50 state championships, 11 individual championships and five all-around national championships.

"We started this club 18 years ago with the idea of providing a positive gymnastics environment for everybody," co-owner Paula Hartwick told the State Journal. "Under John we found ourselves moving farther and farther away from that idea."

After Great Lakes, Geddert works briefly for Spartan Gymnastics, an organization affiliated with Michigan State University.

In June, Geddert opens Twistars gymnastics club with Kathryn Geddert, his wife.

2000

A year after Twistars teams capture multiple state titles in levels 5 through 10(10 being expert level), Geddert's national profile gets a boost.

Nearly 1,500 gymnasts from as far away as Armenia register for the Twistars Invitational that's held for three days in January. Geddert starts to create "educational training videos" for gymnastics coaches, according to his LinkedIn profile page.

John Geddert and Kathryn Geddert, his wife, founded the Twistars gymnastics club in 1996. John Geddert was a gymnast at Central Michigan University who graduated in 1980, according to his LinkedIn.com page.(Photo: Rod Sanford, Rod Sanford)

Oct. 17, 2011

Twistars gymnast and DeWitt native Jordyn Wieber wins the all-around competition at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Tokyo and shifts her focus to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Wieber thrives as a member of the first-place U.S. women's gymnastics team coached by Geddert.

2012

Geddert earns U.S. Elite Coach of the Year honors and is announced as head coach for the U.S. Olympic women's gymnastics team.

At the Olympics competition in London, Geddert directs a team dubbed the "Fierce Five" to numerous gold medals. The group includes Wieber, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Kyla Ross.

Nassar, who frequently treats gymnasts at Twistars, serves as the team's doctor.

2013

On Oct. 15, Michigan State Police begin to investigate Geddert after a second allegation of assault and battery. A juvenile gymnast tells police Geddert grabbed her arm and stepped on her foot.

Geddert says he was disciplining the girl and grabbed her to sit her down on a bench. Prosecutors again decline to press charges, but force Geddert to get counseling.

Aug. 4, 2016

The Indianapolis Star launches its lengthy investigation into USA Gymnastics and its handling of sexual abuse complaints over decades.

Aug. 29, 2016

Former gymnast Rachael Denhollander files a criminal complaint against Nassar with MSU Police. She alleges that in 2000, at age 15, she was sexually abused by Nassar during treatments for lower back pain.

Aug. 30, 2016

Sept. 12, 2016

Geddert tells the Indianapolis Star that Nassar is an "extremely professional physician." Geddert describes Nassar as "very competent" and "one of the most respected gymnastics professionals I’ve ever had to deal with.”

Sept. 20, 2016

MSU fires Nassar after Indianapolis Star reveals accusations of sexual abuse against the USA Gymnastics team physician. Geddert doesn't respond to State Journal inquiries about Nassar's status with Twistars. About a week earlier, Geddert didn't say whether Nassar was still affiliated with Twistars.

Jan. 10, 2017

Aug. 29, 2017

Geddert confirms Kathie Klages, Michigan State University's former gymnastics coach, "filled in" at Twistars for "a couple days." This occurs after Geddert, Klages and Twistars were named as co-defendants in federal lawsuits filed by at least 140 women and girls.

The women and girls say Nassar sexually assaulted them. Some say the abuse happened at Twistars, and two say they raised concerns about Nassar to Klages in the 1990s.

Jan. 21, 2018

Dominique Moceanu, a 1996 Olympic gold medal gymnast, posts on Twitter an email she alleges was sent by Geddert to her in 2008.

The email asks Moceanu why she would "stab this sport in the back" and says "the system you malign is the same system that 'petitioned' you onto the 96 team. The coaches that you malign are the very coaches responsible for your fame and notoriety."

The email, Moceanu writes, was Geddert's reaction to her 2008 memoir "Off Balance," which was critical of USA Gymnastics.

"Most of you have noticed that I have been taking a back seat this year," Geddert said. "This has been part of my exit strategy to retire at age 60. Well 60 is here."

Jan. 24, 2018

Lindsey Lemke, a former MSU gymnast, alleges on Twitter that Geddert threatened her after she gave a victim-impact statement during Nassar's sentencing hearing in Ingram County.

Yes this is correct, however I was threatened way too many times by him growing up and I have learned that he does not have that control over me. I am so thankful for your support with Geddert needing to be held accountable!!

Jan. 25, 2018

Geddert transfers management of Twistars to Kathryn Geddert, his wife. Documents the Gedderts file with the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs confirm the transfer.

Twistars' website lists Kathryn Geddert as its owner and appears to remove any references to her husband.

Feb. 6, 2018

The Eaton County Sheriff's Office confirms it's actively investigating complaints against Geddert. A spokeswoman says "there are new people coming forward" with complaints, but she declines to elaborate on the nature of the complaints.

One day after it was operational, Geddert's website, thegymnasticscoach.com, appears wiped clean of any references to him or the products, including training materials and videos, he previously sold.

Before the website changed, it sold several coaching-related items including DVDs and Geddert's "coaching manifesto."

Feb. 8, 2018

Aly Raisman tells CNN's Jake Tapper that Geddert might have known about Nassar sexually abusing gymnasts as early as 2011.

Raisman was a member of the Olympic women's gymnastics team coached by Geddert in the 2012 games in London.

"We would talk about it amongst ourselves," Raisman told Tapper in an interview posted on CNN's website. "And one of my teammates described in graphic detail what Nassar had done to her the night before. And John Geddert was in the car with us and he just didn't say anything."

Also on this day, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sends John and Kathryn Geddert a three-page letter seeking information about Twistars and its relationship with Nassar.

It requests, among other things, "all training materials, policies, procedures, and instructions" provided to Twistars since 1996 about reporting and addressing sexual assault.

The letter — cosigned by members of both parties — states it wants all the information by 5 p.m. Feb. 22.